A primary goal of kindergarten is to provide your child with opportunities to acquire and practice the positive learning and social behaviors necessary to be a happy, confident, successful, and contributing member of the class. These skills will be presented, discussed, modeled, encouraged, and positively reinforced every day. The kindergarten curriculum allows the students to explore and develop skills at their own pace. Much of our work will be introductory and exploratory in nature. Curriculum areas are integrated into the theme we are studying rather than being taught in isolated subjects.
Language Arts
The language arts program includes reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities which are centered around quality literature and leveled instruction. We are using a program from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which is designed for emergent readers. A very important component of this program is the systematic study of phonemic awareness and phonics. Phonemic awareness activities teach the students to discriminate and manipulate the sounds they hear while phonics activities take this learning a step further by connecting sounds to letters in print.
The students also participate in reading literature, either as teacher read-aloud, small group, or class shared reading. This reading process helps students to become familiar with basic conventions of print and work toward learning simple reading strategies such as left-to-right orientation, rhyming word repetition, and using picture cues to read or tell a story. All of these skills and more are practiced through various daily language experiences. Literature activities integrate all language skills; come from all curriculum areas (including math, social studies, and science); and make use of all learning styles – visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. The students are exposed to literature that encompasses a variety of literary types and incorporates rhythm, rhyme, song, and repetition. A piece of literature will generally be read more than once because research has shown that children learn to be more fluent readers through repeated readings of familiar text. Through these experiences your child will make the connection between letters and their sounds and how they come together to form the printed work. Sight words will also be taught and practiced, to lead to further fluency. The students also will read from classroom sets of books as the teacher guides the students in exploring the text.
Writing workshop goes hand-in-hand with the study of readings since it is a reciprocal activity. In reading, the children are learning to look at letters in print and sound out what the word is. In writing, they are conversely sounding out the words and putting them down in print as written letters. The teacher uses the group mini-lesson to explicitly teach aspects of the writing process such as sounding out words, orienting print from left to right, using ending punctuation, and leaving spaces between words. The author’s chair gives students the opportunity to read to an audience and to be an audience member and “good listener.” Students will learn to write in three genres in kindergarten – narrative (simple story from their personal experience), report, and functional writing (a how-to description like, “How to plant a seed.”)
Math
Scott Foresman’s Investigations series will primarily be used for the kindergarten math program. The students will recognize patterns, count, order numbers, group by tens and ones, compare sets, add numbers to ten, graph, measure, and problem solve. Data analysis and algebra are woven throughout the curriculum.
Unit 1 Classroom Routines and Materials Unit 2 Measurement and the number system 1 Unit 4 Measurement and the number system 2 Unit 6 Addition, Subtraction and the number system
The students will use manipulatives to explore a variety of mathematical concepts. By the end of kindergarten children will be expected to have developed numerous math skills. Among those are the abilities to identify numbers to 20 in random order, count objects to 30 with one to one correspondence, extend a pattern, and write numbers correctly to ten.
Handwriting
Kindergarten students will be exposed to the correct way to form letters and numbers. Correct posture, left-to-right orientation, and pencil grip will also be presented and encouraged.
Social Studies
The Social Studies curriculum explores the ideas of self and others. It introduces the basic areas of social studies – history, economics, geography, civics and government that form the basis of the Social Studies curriculum throughout the educational system. These themes are integrated into the other subject areas, including literature selections and games in the math curriculum and literature selections in the Language Arts curriculum. We will learn about selected events in our nation’s history as well as cultures in other parts of the world.
Heartwood Character Education
Heartwood is a Character Education curriculum that reinforces the concepts of Respect, Honesty, Justice, Love, Courage, Loyalty, and Hope. Each month one character attribute is featured through stories, discussion, activities, and interdisciplinary projects. The objective of Heartwood is to foster moral development and to provide reference points for ethical decisions. We will be following the schedule below:
Sept./Oct. – Respect
February – Courage
November- Honesty
March – Loyalty
December – Love
April – Hope
January – Justice
Science
Our science program includes an inquiry-based program through the ASSET consortium comprised of universities, industry, and school district representatives. Our ASSET unit is a study of trees. It extends throughout the year as we adopt, observe, and collect data about a tree in our school yard in each season. As we investigate all aspects of trees in hands-on activities, the students learn directly through their own discoveries. This discovery process teaches important skills in observing, reflecting, predicting, collecting data, and drawing conclusions. Our science studies also include hands-on investigation of seasonal changes, life in a wetland, seeds, and plants.
Health
Our health program includes the Here’s Looking at You drug awareness program as well as lessons on healthy bodies, hand washing to prevent germs, and nutrition. The Here’s Looking at You materials use discussion, role play, and simulations to introduce the idea of what a drug is, talk about poison prevention, discuss feelings, and reinforce social skills. This program continues throughout the elementary grades.
Technology
The students will be working with computers in the classroom throughout the year. The programs used reinforces skills introduced in our language arts and math curricula. Students are taught the basic parts of a computer and how to use the mouse to navigate through the learning activity. Teacher approved websites are also used to practice skills and gather information on themes we study.
Music/Art/Phys. Ed.
Music and art are a part of every kindergarten day and are integrated into the language arts and center activities. Gym class occurs once a week during the inclement weather months. Students go to the gymnasium to play games, do dance and movement activities, and learn to use basic sports equipment.
**Curriculum Night Presentation 2011**
General Information
A primary goal of kindergarten is to provide your child with opportunities to acquire and practice the positive learning and social behaviors necessary to be a happy, confident, successful, and contributing member of the class. These skills will be presented, discussed, modeled, encouraged, and positively reinforced every day. The kindergarten curriculum allows the students to explore and develop skills at their own pace. Much of our work will be introductory and exploratory in nature. Curriculum areas are integrated into the theme we are studying rather than being taught in isolated subjects.
Language Arts
The language arts program includes reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities which are centered around quality literature and leveled instruction. We are using a program from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which is designed for emergent readers. A very important component of this program is the systematic study of phonemic awareness and phonics. Phonemic awareness activities teach the students to discriminate and manipulate the sounds they hear while phonics activities take this learning a step further by connecting sounds to letters in print.
The students also participate in reading literature, either as teacher read-aloud, small group, or class shared reading. This reading process helps students to become familiar with basic conventions of print and work toward learning simple reading strategies such as left-to-right orientation, rhyming word repetition, and using picture cues to read or tell a story. All of these skills and more are practiced through various daily language experiences. Literature activities integrate all language skills; come from all curriculum areas (including math, social studies, and science); and make use of all learning styles – visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. The students are exposed to literature that encompasses a variety of literary types and incorporates rhythm, rhyme, song, and repetition. A piece of literature will generally be read more than once because research has shown that children learn to be more fluent readers through repeated readings of familiar text. Through these experiences your child will make the connection between letters and their sounds and how they come together to form the printed work. Sight words will also be taught and practiced, to lead to further fluency. The students also will read from classroom sets of books as the teacher guides the students in exploring the text.
Writing workshop goes hand-in-hand with the study of readings since it is a reciprocal activity. In reading, the children are learning to look at letters in print and sound out what the word is. In writing, they are conversely sounding out the words and putting them down in print as written letters. The teacher uses the group mini-lesson to explicitly teach aspects of the writing process such as sounding out words, orienting print from left to right, using ending punctuation, and leaving spaces between words. The author’s chair gives students the opportunity to read to an audience and to be an audience member and “good listener.” Students will learn to write in three genres in kindergarten – narrative (simple story from their personal experience), report, and functional writing (a how-to description like, “How to plant a seed.”)
Math
Scott Foresman’s Investigations series will primarily be used for the kindergarten math program. The students will recognize patterns, count, order numbers, group by tens and ones, compare sets, add numbers to ten, graph, measure, and problem solve. Data analysis and algebra are woven throughout the curriculum.
Unit 1 Classroom Routines and Materials
Unit 2 Measurement and the number system 1
Unit 4 Measurement and the number system 2
Unit 6 Addition, Subtraction and the number system
The students will use manipulatives to explore a variety of mathematical concepts. By the end of kindergarten children will be expected to have developed numerous math skills. Among those are the abilities to identify numbers to 20 in random order, count objects to 30 with one to one correspondence, extend a pattern, and write numbers correctly to ten.
Handwriting
Kindergarten students will be exposed to the correct way to form letters and numbers. Correct posture, left-to-right orientation, and pencil grip will also be presented and encouraged.
Social Studies
The Social Studies curriculum explores the ideas of self and others. It introduces the basic areas of social studies – history, economics, geography, civics and government that form the basis of the Social Studies curriculum throughout the educational system. These themes are integrated into the other subject areas, including literature selections and games in the math curriculum and literature selections in the Language Arts curriculum. We will learn about selected events in our nation’s history as well as cultures in other parts of the world.
Heartwood Character Education
Heartwood is a Character Education curriculum that reinforces the concepts of Respect, Honesty, Justice, Love, Courage, Loyalty, and Hope. Each month one character attribute is featured through stories, discussion, activities, and interdisciplinary projects. The objective of Heartwood is to foster moral development and to provide reference points for ethical decisions. We will be following the schedule below:
Sept./Oct. – Respect
February – Courage
November- Honesty
March – Loyalty
December – Love
April – Hope
January – Justice
Science
Our science program includes an inquiry-based program through the ASSET consortium comprised of universities, industry, and school district representatives. Our ASSET unit is a study of trees. It extends throughout the year as we adopt, observe, and collect data about a tree in our school yard in each season. As we investigate all aspects of trees in hands-on activities, the students learn directly through their own discoveries. This discovery process teaches important skills in observing, reflecting, predicting, collecting data, and drawing conclusions. Our science studies also include hands-on investigation of seasonal changes, life in a wetland, seeds, and plants.
Health
Our health program includes the Here’s Looking at You drug awareness program as well as lessons on healthy bodies, hand washing to prevent germs, and nutrition. The Here’s Looking at You materials use discussion, role play, and simulations to introduce the idea of what a drug is, talk about poison prevention, discuss feelings, and reinforce social skills. This program continues throughout the elementary grades.
Technology
The students will be working with computers in the classroom throughout the year. The programs used reinforces skills introduced in our language arts and math curricula. Students are taught the basic parts of a computer and how to use the mouse to navigate through the learning activity. Teacher approved websites are also used to practice skills and gather information on themes we study.
Music/Art/Phys. Ed.
Music and art are a part of every kindergarten day and are integrated into the language arts and center activities. Gym class occurs once a week during the inclement weather months. Students go to the gymnasium to play games, do dance and movement activities, and learn to use basic sports equipment.